Viva la vida
by GhostInThePhoto
Summary: 86 years, Klaus needs something from Caroline, after putting her in an asylum and having her suffer for all those years. And it s safe to assume, she s not girly little Caroline anymore. Will feature Caroline with her humanity ON, but still darkened. Will also feature an unforgiving Klaus, who can t help but still being enarmored. And everybody is chasing after the key to power...
1. lonely strings

86 years later. He´d waited. The first couple of decades he had fooled himself into believing that either she´d break, or that he´d manage to win his war without her help. As the years had dragged on though, he had found himself in an uncomfortable stalemate. His war had yet to be decided, and New Orleans could little have two kings. Having an heir, having a thousand years on his back and being the maker of this opponent had brought him far, but not ahead of his protégé. He´d been overconfident, he had assumed she´d give up fast. She hadn´t though.

Rebekah sat in the car, mindlessly gazing at the red brick stone building. "For goodness' sake, get in there, and drag the bloody nuisance out of there, this place is ruining my mood." From the outside it looked quiet and peaceful, the perfect home for the mentally restless. At least that´s what the sign advertised. It was not just the average asylum though. All of its inhabitants were vampires. The place has been created in the 17th century. The "patients" being vampires that even amongst the darkest of their kind would be considered "crazy". Rippers that have managed to outdo even Stefan Salvatore in his darkest days, psychos that have caused massacres amongst their own kind. Vampires that all should be staked but , each for their own reasons, were considered too valuable to kill. Their family had found the place with the intent of having an army of assassins ready at their disposable, though some of the inmates also were there as favors to inferior vampires. They didn´t kill a certain on-the-loose-vampire, in return some other, normal vampire owed them big time.

Thomas, the vampire who ran the place for them, met them by the car, carrying a file. His face looked troubled, his pace was hurried. "Mr. Mikaelson."

"Thomas." Klaus nodded dismissively, "Is that her file?" He inquired, nodding at the thick binder. He didn´t wait for a response before grabbing the file and beginning to read it.

"Care to explain how she was put under solitary confinement with privileged accommodation, thirty years ago? I instructed you to extract information from her, not to pamper her."

Thomas simply sighed, as Rebekah raised an eyebrow. "Well... "

Three hours, 154 pages and an unsatisfactory conversation later, Niklaus Mikaelson was finally on his way to meet her - in the library. He had expected to find her in the same cell he had placed her unconscious body 84 years ago, or maybe in a torture chamber, but Thomas had literally begged him to consider meeting her in the library, claiming she was more amicable and less troublesome there. Niklaus had scoffed, but was utterly amazed by the fear in the old vampires voice. When he had placed Caroline Forbes in the institution, she had barely been a baby vampire while Thomas and most of the staff had centuries on her. 84 years later, and Thomas was seemingly terrified.

The next mystery was her file. Like instructed, all types of torture available and feasible had been used on her, repeatedly. Every entry for one of her "sessions" ended with the same comment " outcome: not satisfactory". He noted, that after a few years, several of the entries ended with a shaky handwriting, like the hand had trembled while writing. They had even attempted truth potions on her, and even he himself was curious to learn how she had resisted that. 31 years ago, however, something larger than her resistance must have happened. He noted that her guards had changed often and rapidly in that time frame, before she had finally been removed from her cell to a room upstairs, also she had been granted library access and a nightly walk in the garden. Supervised, of course, but still, she was not supposed to ever receive any privileges. He already felt like tearing out several hearts based on this revelation alone. She was still being tortured, and he noted that the methods, in parts had grown harsher and more severe than they had been when he had still been invested in her suffering. He himself had stopped waiting for imminent changes after the first two years, and it pleased him to note, that even though she wound up in better accommodation, his servants had been improving on the severity of her sentence. The result however, did not please at all. 84 years, and no information or confession.

Now, though, he needed that upper hand badly. He needed the information she alone held.

_84 years ago, Tibet..._

_She had been strolling through the streets, after having spent the day kite-running. The smile on her face had been as radiant as always, and for a second he reveled in the view, knowing that the second he´d confront her, she´d be his enemy. The woman that had betrayed him. The woman that knew where to find the key to solving his problems. All he´d need would be a little compulsion, and he´d dispose of her. Punish her for her betrayal._

_He had her cornered against a monastery´s wall, less than an hour later. His pupils dilated towards her fearful gaze. "Klaus, please." Instead, he crushed her wind pipe, rendering her speechless. _

_The second her organ had been healed, he had compelled her. "Tell me everything." _

_She had only looked up at him, tears streaming down her soft cheeks "I am so sorry, but I can´t tell you." _

_His hold on her had tightened, he slammed her against the wall several times, wondering why his compulsion had now worked, before it dawned on him. Tibet, the monks, her father's daughter... She had learned to resist. _

_After that he had snapped her neck roughly, and brought her back to the States, placing her under Thomas' "Care". He had gazed down at her peacefully sleeping form, wondering how life just had to turn out like this. "I don´t care how badly you have to tear her apart, get the things I need out of her and once it´s confirmed that she´s told us the truth, all of it, kill her." That was the last time he had seen her beautiful face, 84 years ago._

The library was a rather bright, lightly blue-colored room. He found her sitting on the window sill, learning against her magically, daylight-protective glass. Stunning as ever, dreamily gazing outside, longing for a freedom she longer deserved, if he had any say about it. But nonetheless, stunning as ever.

His heart stopped when she turned to him, her bright ice showing him not the familiar warmth they held, when he last saw her, but they held ice instead. Plenty of ice. Her smile was serene, yet disturbing.

"Hello, love." she said, in a voice of comfort and malice.

**So... here´s the prologue. I hope you like it. The story will be a combo of: hurt, dark-ish Caroline and a scavenger hunt. What do you guys think? **


	2. Rule the world

"C'mon love, have a seat" she said eerily lightly, crossing her legs in order to make space for him on the window sill. Her arms were secured in a magically-enhanced white straightjacket. Her Hair was tied up in a messy bun, she seemed unexpectedly radiant.

He strode to sit across from her, gazing at her face, wondering why she wasn´t dead yet. "Sweetheart, you look stunning, considering that you should have died decades ago, I am ... impressed."

"Yeah... the place really did wonders for me." As if on cue, one of the guards came in, delivering a couple of compelled humans.

"Thank you, Ray" Caroline chimed from her seat, looking like royalty. The pale guard choked awkwardly, barely daring to look at her, preferring to look at Klaus instead. It struck him as odd, how people chose to fear this girl instead of him.

"How sweet, you brought us food. " Klaus eyes returned to her at that, wondering exactly how long ago she had started drinking from the vein, and more explicitly, how she could get hooked on the vein in a place that was supposed to keep her starved. "Though, to be honest, I doubt they can measure up to you."

At that, the guard choked again, nearly flashing out of the room.

"I´m impressed, seems like I´ll need to replace your keepers."

"Oh, please do, I mean, the guards are sweet, literally sweeeeeeeet, but they´re so easy."

"How did you get Thomas to alter your living arrangements?" he asked, scrutinizing her.

"Well... he insisted on having his boys hurt me. And you know, I kept on wondering, why ... after all all this long long time ... they did not simply kill me. Then it hit me... they still needed something from me. Something YOU need badly, so badly in fact that even though all kinds of torture were authorized, killing me was apparently on hold until I had fessed up. Seriously, did you honestly think that any kind of torture would get me to spit out the tiny piece of information that kept me alive all this time. " she laughed. Her relaxed way of laughing at him, getting on his nerves.

"Well... I figured the torture would have made death seem a grateful way out by now, like I said, maybe some new people can fix that." He explained calmly.

"I actually did have that thought ,but then I realized, I can make their lives living hell as well."

_She was leaning against the wall of her cell. The footsteps were loud and clear, damning her to another session of whatever torture was in the program today. She had oddly enough kept count of the years and days, it was easier than counting tears. Tears she had cried for a fate she decidedly had not deserved. Slowly she sank down to the floor, wondering what would happen next._

_"Hey, sunshine." the guard named Ray, sang " Did you miss me?". _

_He gently crouched down to her level. "Ssh... lovely, your next session isn´t in another hour, I just came because I wanted you to keep me company."_

_Her mind raced at that. NOT AGAIN. She struggled against the older vampire, as he pressed her up on the floor, roughly grabbing at her whenever he could. _

_"Ssh... just lay still... love." Later on she could only remember that memory-ridden endearment, before she ceased to struggle. "That´s the spirit." he had said, sounding like a hyena. _

_His hands had wandered from her breasts to in-between her legs, as he readied himself for the assault. As he was preparing for her whatever-manieth rape she had experienced in this hell hole, she saw it, through all of her tears, she saw it. An opening. _

_Her teeth were in his neck faster than he could have fathomed, and she drank from him with the greed of a starved predator, clawing at him, digging holes into his skin, twisting his hands, taking more and more blood. Not letting-up, not letting go. She took. He was lying on the ground barely able to breath, when she lunged for his stun-gun. She got up and slowly aimed at his head, than at his heart, slowly lowering the gun. When she finally made her shot, it hit him right between the legs. She used all of his ammunition on that one spot. _

_Then, she had lowered himself onto him, and whispered into his ear. "Don´t worry, darling, you´re a vampire, it´ll heal...eventually. Now, don´t be a bore, get me Thomas or someone more superior and tell them, I´d like a new guard appointed to me. " She got up, and in long-forgotten confidence, she leaned back against the wall. "Run along, she chimed, or my hunger comes back." _

_At that, the poor vampire had gotten up clumsily, and flashed out of the cell, as fast as his injuries had permitted him to. _

_After that, they had permanently placed her in a straight-jacket, causing her to laugh. She quickly taught guards that attempted to assault her like Ray had tried, that it only took a determined swaying of her hip, to break certain body parts. Those kinds of assaults ceased soon. _

_Then they had attempted blood withdrawal - alongside her daily torture sessions. Thomas had soon faced another issue though, her threat of self-desiccation. Instead of begging for her life, she kept on talking and talking and talking, commenting on his clothes, asking for things he knew he wouldn´t give her, just talking... until she had been almost gone, without having revealed what he needed to find out for Klaus. So he gave her blood. And when he did, she smiled at him like a child of darkness. After the third almost-desiccation she finally told him. "You know, we both know the game, I am uncomfortably hungry, but at the end of the day you are forced to keep me alive. I know that if I wait long enough like a good little girl, you´ll feed me. Think of something better, sweetie." She said it to him in an almost friendly manner. Like discussing the weather. _

_She started assaulting the other guards and torturers at any chance she got. One would have assumed, since they old had centuries on her that it would have been futile, but then again, her point of view was advantageous. They can´t kill her. At the end of the day, her death was not an option, so she only had to launch herself at any opening she saw, create them if need be. At one point, she nearly chewed the ear of an 200 year old Irish vampire. Several of them had been close to death, with her tiny, porcelain hand wrapped around their hearts, then they brought in a newbie. He was 500 years old, strong and mean, and she had struggled with finding an opening, but just as he was about to give her a taste of her own medicine, she had broken through his defense, breaking his lungs before dragging her hand to his heart. His, she had just pulled out. She took the blood and painted butterflies onto her cell wall. _

_After that, Thomas had threatened to cut off some of her limbs, and she only looked at him and his saw. "Seriously, I would have come up with that one ages ago... Now you CAN do that, but just to be clear, if I lose any part of my body, I´ll find a way to die on you. Without anything you can tell our mutual frenemy. Now, you probably don´t believe me, but then again, neither did you think I could get your hounds to stop molesting me. ... so I guess, the ball is in your court." She only smiled at him after that. _

_Thomas returned to her cell later that night, after not having touched a single of her limbs. "It seems, we´ve reached an impasse."_

_"So it seems, you´re running out of new torture methods, I am almost immune to electric shocks, they tickle a bit, but I think they´re cute. As for vervaine, I´ve stopped responding to that five years ago. Your truth potions don´t work on me, your guards have grown boring. I´ve even grown accustomed to blood withdrawal... are you here to ask me how to torture me next?" she joked._

_"No, but what am I supposed to do with you. I am supposed to torture you until you break."_

_"Then torture away." she shrugged._

_"And you keep on disturbing my staff."_

_"You mean I keep on putting your collection of misfits and disgusting rapists into their place. What of it?"_

_"Can I offer you anything for the information Klaus needs?"_

_"Nope..." with that, she turned around to sleep. _

_After that Thomas, his red hair sweaty and his appearance untidy, resigned. As he was almost out of the door, he heard her amused voice though._

_"I could do with a better room though, it might make me stop killing other guards."_

_After that, the arrangement had more or less set itself. She still got tortured several times a day, and ever since her victory, the torture had gotten more severe. But she had managed to obtain certain privileges. She got to spend time in the library, she even got to take books to her new room, which was nothing special but more comfortable than her cell. Also she got to spend time with the other inmates. _

_Thomas probably cursed himself, but she had left him with little to no choice. Everything he had been throwing at her, came back to haunt him. He tried to kill her, she volunteered to die, knowing that her death was not part of his plan. He tortured her, one of his guards wound up hurt or worse. Dead. _

_She quickly became the queen of the inmates. At first, since most to all of them were men, they tried a replay of the guards. And a replay they got, she was sure that those that tried to hurt her that way, never thought of sex again. At least for a few decades. She made friends as well, comforted others, listened to every story they were willing to tell her. Soon, they took care of her, when she came back from her sessions. They became part of her world. _

_Thomas saw that, and his first instinct was to take it away from her again, the books and the inmates. She retaliated twice within 24 hours. First, she raped one of his guards. One of those that had once done the same to her. To this day, the guy was broken. Then she jumped out of the magical windows, into the open sunlight, relishing in the burn. Conveniently, when most of the other inmates were in the common hall, and able to see her. She barely made it. Finding himself having the one prisoner he couldn´t let die almost burn to death, having an uproar that he barely managed to contain and a messed up guard, Thomas returned her books and her friends to her. _

_After that, they had developed a sinister routine. They´d torture, motivated by the chance of dethroning her, they roughed her up any chance they got, and in between, she´d read or talk or learn and in an odd way, created the resemblance of a home. _

Caroline shot out of her memories and studied Klaus. She´d never tell him about any of this. "Well.. haven´t you heard, this hell is mine."

"I could always have you killed, love."

"Again with the killing threats`? Please do... " She moved her head, freeing her hair from her slender neck. "Have at it, bite me." She commented like she had no care in the world.

Klaus stared at her, his thoughtless bluff being called.

"Now, sweetheart, since I am running on little time here, how about you tell me what I need to know and I promise you a painless death." he spat.

"A painless death? ... Interesting offer, since your henchmen have been hesitant to provide me with exactly that for the past 80something years. You know, if I had any remote interest in being dead, I would have told them what you need to know already. Death does not interest me. And you can´t compel me, you can´t make me tell you... and as you said, you´re time budget is rather economic these days, so why don´t we speed this up by having you make me a ... better offer."

With this she flashed to the first human, compelling her to lower her neck. Then she slowly and sensually, her eyes never leaving Klaus' , she fed on her, until the girl dropped dead. Klaus gulped as he saw her doing the same to the next girl, and he swore he never saw anything more erotic than her feeding like that.

"How about you tell me what you want, love?"

"Alright." she beamed, strolling back to her window bench, sitting once more across from him.

"I want my freedom and my life back. And no... before you do this Stefanesque frowning thing, I will not take your word for it, it´s rather worthless from where I stand. I want you to swear a blood oath, conducted by a witch of my choosing on Elijah's and Rebekah' life, meaning that you will grant me my freedom as well as promise to not kill me directly or indirectly. And that is just my first condition."

"Not a chance, I am not involving my siblings in this."

"Because you already are planning on going back on your word, meaning that if you were to swear an oath onto their lives, they´d both be dead the second I tell you what you need to know. Which is exactly why this is what I want." She reasoned, her eyes never leaving his.

In a flash, had her pressed up against the wall. "Now you listen to me, LOVE. You´re dust compared to me, and I will not have my hand forced by you or anyone, you hear me?" he said, meeting her unimpressed eyes. "How about... I show you." The next thing she felt were his teeth piercing her neck... before the familiar feeling of venom spreading through her system took over.

She struggled to remain standing, impressing him with her ability to not completely falter. He heard her mutter something.

"What was that... Caroline?" he smiled confidently.

"So... Predictable." she laughed, slowly and tiredly walking towards the door, before jamming her head against it. Repeatedly.

"Visiting hours are over" she yelled, as blood marred her face and the door. Klaus grabbed her and held her as tightly as he could, wanting her to stop whatever craziness she was cooking up. The guards were with them in a minute. Caroline immediately calmed down and exhaustedly sauntered back to her window sill, leaning against it with the little power she had left. "Well Klaus... looks like your time is running out faster now," she said dreamily. "See you next time."

With resignation he walked out, thinking he could give her a few hours of pain before she´d ultimately beg for his blood. He was almost out of the door, when he heard her voice. "You know, you should have waited with the hybrid bite bluff until you had heard about condition number2..." he could hear her smirk, and a shudder went down his spine. _Who is this girl? Where is Caroline?_


	3. Jerusalem bells are ringing

"She is .. WHERE?" Klaus growled. He had bitten Caroline twelve hours ago, expecting her to change her mind within the approximately six hours she would have left to live if he didn´t give her his blood, he had expected to come back and find her miserably lying on her lonely bed, crying about her misery. He had expected anything but what Thomas had just told him.

Caroline was not lying on her death bed miserably, she was not even in her room. She was at the last place he would have presumed her to be, in the dining hall, along with all the other inmates.

"Explain." he snarled, holding Thomas up by his throat. "Before I kill you."

The handsome red-head struggled for air, he hadn´t been needing in centuries. "The other inmates, sir, they... asked for her. " he barely managed to spit out. Klaus scrunched and eye brow before carelessly dropping his long-time friend to the ground, nodding at him to elaborate.

"She´s been hanging out with them every day for the past couple of decades. With her... current condition... we did try to keep her away, but when she didn´t come to the hall after her regular session with us... the others suspected foul play. We were close to a mutiny before we had to give her to them. ... And when the others saw her injury, they decided to stay with her until ... whatever end there´ll be."

"You mean to tell me that you cannot even control the inmates in your own prison?"

"Usually, I can. Me and my staff, we can usually break them apart and everything, ... it´s just different with her."

"Different how?" he barked.

"There aren´t any other female inmates, and those that had been previously... didn´t last long. When she first interacted with them, they tried to break her... so she ... broke them back. Just like she did with most of my men. But... when she was done with the breaking she ... picked them back up again. Within a few months, she was... theirs." Thomas said, struggling to find the right words for the odd relationship entertained with his 43 other inmates.

"What do you mean, theirs?"

"They´d tell her stories, they´d teach her languages... they take care of her ... after her ... after her "sessions.". I tried stopping it, it nearly cost me the entire prison. Separating them insulted in her publicly trying to kill herself and them openly revolting. She´s become something similar to their deity, only less religious. She´s their essence. They hold on to her, they care for her... each of them in his own sick way... they refuse to give up on her until she´s drawn her last breath."

"Which she´ll breath, once she´s told me everything." Klaus commented, abandoning Thomas to pour himself some Bourbon.

"Which she won´t do until you have agreed to her conditions." Thomas mumbled ominously. Over the past 86 years, he had learned plenty of Caroline Forbes' stubbornness.

"We´ll see, old friend, won´t we?" Klaus chuckled darkly.

Thirty minutes later he was walking into the dining hall. It wasn´t much of a cafeteria, more like a huge room, filled with abandoned cups that used to hold daily blood ratios. There were a couple of books on shelves that had been cemented into the wall. All the chairs and tables and anything resembling furniture was made of magically enhanced metal, ensuring that the inmates would not stake each other. Over the years, there were even a few pillows and blankets and beanie bags added as recreational spaces for the few vampires that were on top of the current food chain.

Also, in order to take off some of the tension in this place, there were a few enforced punching bags and a crayon and paint drawing area for the feeble-minded. For the sexually frustrated there were secluded areas, for desperation breeds strange friendships. Some of the inmates had been in here since Klaus and his siblings had set up the place. Homosexuality had long ceased to be a prerequisite for loneliness in here. Of course, that place was also camera-supervised, just like everything else.

When Klaus entered, he found a scene he had not quite anticipated, the inmates were gathered around a long-haired blonde man, seated on a super-sized pillow, cradling something he obviously held dear in his arms. The man holding Caroline looked eerily like her long-lost twin. His eyes were blue-green, like hers, his hair had her shade of gold. Even his skin held a porcelain tone.

Caroline was no longer in her straightjacket, instead she wore a loose pair of light-brown shorts and a white tank-top. Her forehead was sweaty, her breathing hollow. She was closer to death than he had calculated.

The blonde man cradling her, slowly bit into his own wrist, offering her his blood.

"Noah, we both know that won´t save me."

"But it´ll make you better, Care." he responded softly.

"You know, it´ll be okay, right? I don't mind the dying part." she gently said, a soft smile gracing her lips, reminding Klaus of the girl he had once placed into this hell.

"But we all do. You´re part of a bigger plan. Your job is to leave this abyss and do as you promised you would do, if you ever went free." he smiled, worry creazing his forehead.

"Maybe I´ll be able to keep my promise from the other side." she answered. "You know how well I get along with ghosts."

"That´s a chance we all won´t take, you need to still see the world and take us with you." he hummed.

"Okay," she answered tiredly, drifting off slightly into her own head. "Then we´ll all travel the world." She sounded like a six-year old, not like a 87 year-old vampire.

Klaus didn´t understand most of the conversation, but chalked it up to her diminishing lucidity, the hallucinations had probably already started.

"Now, doesn´t that look cozy?" he spat, glaring at Caroline and this Noah-guy.

"Who are you?" Caroline's protector barked darkly.

"That depends" Caroline coughed weakly. "Do you also see a blond-haired smirk-ridden dude with a British accent?"

"Yes, Care. That would be him." Noah answered softly.

"Great, for a second I was wondering whether he was a hallucination. Noah... that is misery man. Misery man, that is Noah. But I suppose, Noah, he won´t mind you calling him Klaus." she explained gently but with a hint of darkness.

The other inmates started to whisper, at the mention of Klaus. He was used to shushed voices uttering his name in awe once his identity was revealed, however, this time, there was no awe, no respect. The stares and voices held only contempt. Several moved to put themselves between him and Caroline. Klaus immediately knew that these rejects did not care for his superior strength or his dark reputation, they only cared for the girl.

"You look tired, Caroline." he smiled, ignoring the stares and the scoffs surrounding him, focusing solely onto her apparent exhaustion.

"Wow... you came to gloat... how impressive." she yawned, cuddling deeper into Noah's arms. Her secret twin eyed Klaus with hatred.

"You know, all you need to do is tell me what I want to know, love. It´s that simple."

"Yes, so you can simply leave me to die after I finish talking. Amazing, really. Now, since you plan on letting me die whether I talk or not... how about you just leave." Caroline continued to yawn, boredom coloring her voice.

"Caroline, of course I´ll feed you my blood. I always keep my promises."

"Yes, but after she´s done healing you´ll have her killed anyway." Noah interrupted, cleaning sweat of the dying vampire's forehead.

"Stay out of this, boy... before I dispose of you." Klaus answered not even looking at him.

"Kill him, or rather kill any of my friends, and you can choke on your precious blood." Caroline roared, using all of her strength to shoot up and glare at the hybrid.

"Sweetheart..." Klaus spat, dangerously.

"Shut up, Niklaus. Just shut up. I know you somehow can't wrap your mind around the fact that even though your blood is the only thing that could save me, I am not prepared to play your game. So let me tell you the rules of this game. There are two - and by two I mean EXACTLY two ways this story can end: Version one, you refuse to give in to my demands and I refuse your blood and die, slash I refuse your blood, you force it down my throat and I just find another way to kill myself. Version two: You agree to my terms, heal me and the story continues. There are no other versions, there will be no negotiations and if you´re too daft to comprehend this, get me some of those crayons and I´ll doodle you a picture. And if you think that threatening my friends will help you at all... you´re really not prepared to deal with me. Didn´t Thomas tell you about me or are you just purposefully stupid?" When she was done with her rant, she started coughing up blood, causing Noah to cradle her again, holding her until the coughing stopped.

"Great... this time I am also coughing." she uttered.

"You need blood, Care." Noah said, showing his wrist into her mouth. Klaus noticed her feeble struggles before she finally gave in to her friend's help.

Klaus watched the two, mesmerized by the sensual way she seemed to drink of her lover. The memory of how her teeth once used to bite into his wrist like that snuck up on him, a surge of jealousy leafed through him along with anger. Anger about her managing to gain a lover and admirers when she was supposed to be lonely and miserable and alone. But also arousal at the sensuality in her lips and in the veins covering her vampire features. It was a sight of beauty.

"Thank you." she whispered, a smile gracing her lips.

"My siblings won´t agree to your terms, Caroline" Klaus explained nonchalantly.

"Not my problem, Klaus." she answered, her eyes never leaving Noah's.

With that, her sole focus became Noah. Klaus studied his face, trying to remember if he or his siblings had put him there, but came up empty in his mental search. The way she looked at him was so tender and lovingly.

"You´re in pain, Care." he grunted, wiping the sweat off her forehead.

"Well... what do you want to do about it?" she asked tiredly.

He smiled softly, before letting his hand trail towards her shorts. She gave him a playful and it started to wander beneath the fabric. Klaus couldn´t believe his eyes. The sweet girl that had once captivated him was allowing this guy, her almost-twin, to touch her like that. With him watching. On hear deathbed. The familiarity between them sickened him. He quickly gazed around and absorbed the unperturbed worry in the other inmates' faces. Like her getting a hand job from them was normality, like it was not enough out of the ordinary for them to stop caring about her rather than the act she was about to commit.

"We weren't done talking, love." he said, as he roughly pushed Noah away from her, catching her in his arms. His inner wolf apparent in his yellow eyes.

"Then talk" she softly hummed.

"I want all the answers, everything about what you did and not just that tiny piece of information. In exchange, I will ... let you go free." he spat.

"What about the blood oath?" she asked, the eerie smile never leaving her face.

"Fine". His voice was dark and dooming.

For a second they had a post knock-out stand-off, the dying winner and the all-powerful defeated trying to talk to each other without so much as a word.

Her eyes softened, matching her smile. "That must have been difficult for you." she said, not a hint of gloating in her tone.

Klaus only held out his wrist. "Just have at it and let´s get out of here." he said flatly.

"We need to talk about condition number two first, otherwise we´ll be right back here again in less than two minutes." she said, gently caressing his face. Her hand felt cold and distant though, but her eyes were intimate. He could hear Noah and some of the others growl as they looked on.

"And what condition would that be, love?" he asked, his anger demanding release, but his tone hiding it nonetheless.

" I don´t trust you. Not even with a blood oath sworn onto your siblings' life. I just don´t. I think the second you know what you need to know, you´ll start searching for a way around the oath. So I am going to divide the information. I´ll give you the truth about that night, all of it, except for the crucial information two weeks after the oath has taken place. I would tell you right away, but I´ll need props for this type of story-telling. As for the information you need, I´ll deliver it to you 25 years after that. So just in case you have already know how to cheat that oath, I`ll at least have had some more time for myself. I´ll get to life 25 years of my choosing, you, I am afraid, will have to wait a little longer." Her explanation had knocked the force out of her as she started coughing. Oddly enough, Klaus found himself stroking her back, telling himself it was to demand her attention back onto their negotiation.

"I told you my time frame is limited."

Another wave of blood came out of her mouth, her end was near. "You managed to wait 86 years, you can wait 25 for more. And don´t even think about negotiating that one down, or you´ll find yourself waiting 50 more years instead." she spat, giving in to the excruciating pain that filled her blood.

He couldn't win this battle. The thought was imminent as it was calming. He was known to never cave and to always have the upper hand, but that was more based upon the fact that he had until this very moment always had exactly that. She wouldn´t budge. Caroline Forbes would rather die on him and take her secrets to the grave then giving in. It dawned on him that she could be making this so much more humiliating, so much more humbling on him, but she didn´t. She merely refused to budge.

"As you wish." he said, after a heavy, collected, calm sigh.

She studied him, appraised his sincerity. For almost longer than she had left to live, she wavered, wondering if it was finally over, before she timidly took his hands, pulling his wrist closer to her mouth.

The sensation over her mouth on his skin and her teeth in his veins was nothing like it had been the previous two times. She was not just taking his blood, she was biting into him like a devious hyena, and nearly taking the entire limb of. Every suction, every scraping of her teeth a deliberate attempt to make this as unpleasant and painful to him as possible. Her previous softness gone. He hesitation evaporated with the first drop of blood. She was savage and raw, punitive and enraged, and she made sure he knew that.

Niklaus Mikaelson did not cry out or scream, but he did feel pain and if it weren´t for the fact that he had to be sure she was healing properly, he would have taken her head off. She had caught him of guard, with her timid and shy touch and her soft smile, she had not just been keeping her stubbornness, she had gained malice, a malice mirroring his own punitive ways.

When she was done, she used her last ounce of strength before the inevitable loss of consciousness would hit her, to scramble back up and walk towards her lover. Her almost-twin. The blonde picked her tiny frame up carefully and carried her up to the nearest window sill, letting her drift off with her favourite view in front of her tired eyes: Freedom.

Klaus just stood there, amongst her admirers and friends, mesmerized by the apparent softness that had returned to her, shocked by the vicious animal that second ago had torn at his flesh, humbled by her new gained freedom.

In this moment he hated her more than he had ever hated anyone, for bringing him down, for winning and mostly for making him hate her in the first place.

**So... finally... the third chapter. That one took so damn long simply because it was such a bore to write, I have so many things planned and him saving her ... now that one was obvious. So my apologies if this chapter is a let-down...but it´s a filler chapter that was just a pain in the butt to write. I am glad I got this one over with. **


	4. Heads on silver plates

2 weeks later...

She was meeting them in front of an old cemetary an hour outside of New Orleans. Personally, she would have preferred for the spell to be done within the city limits, but apparently there is some No-Witchy-JuJu-Law hindering that from happening. So she had contacted Klaus and told him where to find her and the witch, graciously reminding him not to forget any of his precious siblings. It was noon, the air was humid. Nonetheless, she looked impeccable in her knee-length jeans and her black tank-top. Her hair was up in a messy bun, a green leather-jacket was casually draped across her shoulders. Her smile seemed like the perfect cheerleader smile. She seemed happy and content, and not at all like a person capable of killing over a hundred people in a fire. _Appearances_ _can be so deceiving_ Klaus mused as he got out of his black SUV, followed by a calm Elijah and an annoyed Rebekah.

"Great, you´re all here. Now how about we get this little blood spell ordeal over with?" she smiled, with cold eyes, turning to walk into the cemetary, not bothering to check whether they´d be following.

The Originals gazed at the witch, each of them wondering how Caroline had managed to procure her services. It was an old woman, the spell was most likely to kill her.

_One week earlier_

_He´d been alone, when she had knocked. His familiar eyes had shot up in disbelief as they met again, for the first time in over 86 years. She had known all along that things would be familiar but different. Like the way he patted her shoulders, as she simply sobbed into his shoulders would not be quite right. Like he would be saying all the right things, but his penetrating gaze would, masked in friendly concern, search for something she was not sure about. He let her into the Salvatore Mansion, he placed her onto the couch. He made her hot cocoa. Stefan was everything a caring, guilt-ridden friend should be._

_"Do you want me to call Elena?" he asked, sitting right next to her, holding her hand._

_"No." She said softly. _

_It was after a long stretch of silence, that he finally had the nerve, the courage or at least the decency to speak up._

_"Caroline, what happened... I am so... " he tried to speak, but she shushed him quickly. She simply placed a finger onto his lips. _

_"Can we please not do this right now?" _

_In hindsight, seducing Stefan Salvatore had been ridiculously easy. She´d inquired diplomatically but friendly about the state of his' and Elena's relationship, only to learn that Elena had chosen Damon 86 years ago, and she was still sticking to that stupid decision, just like Stefan still seemed to be sticking around for no particular reason. It seemed like he was still pining after Elena, but something about that - like so many other things about him - did not feel quite right. So she had offered consolation, first in words, than in a pat onto his shoulder... than in other ways. The sex itself was just like it should have been, with him being tender and caring and soft, and her being giggly and easy-going. It was just like she imagined it to be over 87 years ago, at the bonfire, when he had rejected so he could start courting Elena Gilbert. "So much to never-happening" she mused, while going for round 3 .. or was it already number four? Afterwards, when they had both been satisfied, they lay there, him stroking her back, she musing. He seemed content in a way that appeared to surprise even him. He spoke if the sex having been unexpected. She told him that this was the best kind there was. And the she had gotten up._

_"What are you doing?" he asked, sensing a change in the air._

_"Leaving... I have a busy schedule ahead. I still need to get even with one other Salvatore and a Gilbert... can´t spend all day having sex, can I? Though, I have to say, this was good. you know. Good in a good way, too bad, we won´t be repeating it anytime soon." she had said, caressing his cheek. Then she had snapped his neck and driven a vervain-soaked stake into his stomach, for good measure._

_She left a note on his chest. _

**Dear Stefan,**

**I know, this was really bitchy of me. You know... I missed having friends. I missed all of you, which in itself already screams mentally-unstable, considering you lot were partially responsible for what has been happening to me these past 86 years. But I really missed you. Actually, I missed just you. I stopped missing Matt by the time I realized that he must have died. Elena. Damon... I don´t have any real reason to miss either of them. I am just angry at them. Majorly Angry. So I only really missed you. And I wish I could just say that all is forgiven, but what you did... or rather what you didn´t do... is just too big. So consider me seducing you and stabbing you and snapping your neck, my type of payback. Along with me telling Elena. And either you get it and choose to forgive me for not letting this go without payback, or you don´t. But you can´t ask me to not take some sort of revenge. Speaking of which... I won´t be as gentle with your brother or Elena... don´t worry, I won´t kill them... but yeah, I expect you to move past their punishments as well... you owe me that, after what you put me through.**

**Okay... this just came out wrong, but I have no better way of telling you. **

**Sorry.**

**Your friend.**

**Caroline**

**PS: I am stealing your motorcycle as well. **

_With that, she had simply left his room. _

The spell had been fairly simple, but nonetheless it had killed the elderly witch. Her corpse had been picked up by a younger relative, presumably a daughter or a niece. Caroline and the girl had just exchanged knowing looks, which lead to questioning looks from all three Originals. Caroline had simply ventured towards Klaus' car and waited for him to unlock the doors, so she could go for the passenger seat.

"Oh... see that huge chest over there?" she said, indicating a large metal box with a lock in front of it. "Be a doll and put it in the trunk, I´ll need it for the show later". She chuckled, when Elijah was the one deigning to place the box inside the trunk.

On the way to his place in New Orleans, it occurred to her how surreal it was, sharing a ride with the people that sent her to hell. So she giggled. Rebekah wanted to know what the heck was so funny... and Caroline simply told her "Nothing."

When they finally entered Klaus' apartment, she immediately went for the liquor cabinet, like a third sense that was guiding her towards the booze. Elijah was the one carrying her metal chest.

"So love.. .I think it´s time for some answers" Klaus grunted, taking a sip of bourbon himself. He had been waiting for 86 years for that talk. His patience was growing thin.

"Sure." she said airily, before sauntering towards the chest, like a girl skipping rope. When she opened the trunk, she pulled out a body, slamming it onto the floor in lightning speed. With a split second, she was straddling the brunette female, biting into her own wrist and forcing a few drops of it down the woman's throat.

"So Katherine, Klaus wants us to tell him a story... you´re ready to fess up?" she asked, looking down at the pale vampire. Then Caroline dug her claws into Katherine's throat.

Elijah was the first trying to tear Caroline off, who only shook her head, inclining her head knowingly towards her hand. "If you pull me off now, you´ll tear out her entire throat as well... now I know she's a survive-it-all kind of bitch, but I am pretty sure that this would kill her" she drawled slowly... "Don´t worry... she's still got plenty of room to talk."

Rebekah glanced at the scenario in a slightly impressed way, Elijah seemed concerned. Klaus only showed impatience. After all of these years, he just needed to hear her say it. He needed her confession, needed to know why she chose to have his brother killed.

"Now... where to beginn." Caroline mused.

_87 years ago..._

_He had bitten her for a second time, barely healed for a second time as well. After that, she had drifted off into a quiet slumber, the exhaustion having wrecked her entire system. Saying it had been awkward waking up in his caressing and soothing arms, the morning after that. She had panicked. In a flash she had rushed out of his embrace and into the safe kitchen, but she had missed the corpse that had been lying in the hallway, so he had tripped. _

_This accident had lead to two things. A pretty embarrassing moment that wound up only getting interrupted by her phone ringing. The other thing she would discover later... after Tyler had been already forced to run for the hills, after Klaus had left her standing on the Gilbert porch, with a declaration that left her heart quivering. She had been wondering how loving one person would allow her heart to feel - even if it was just a tiny bit - for another person, as she had entered Elena's home. The sight of the corpse took her mind of it. She decided to give him a burial, as in a real grave with a tomb stone and flowers. She would clean up all signs of death from her friend's home. That's when she saw it... The phone that had miraculously survived his burning. The phone she had only found because she had tripped over his corpse. _

_There was a synapse in her vampire brain that had immediately called "leverage", viewed it as a way to bargain on Tyler's behalf. So she had looked through it. What she found, was surprising, scary and... mostly incredible._

_By skipping through Kol Mikaelson's phone, she found a lot. Way too many game apps, a decent taste for modern music (considering just how little he has gotten to live in that era), but most importantly Caroline had stumbled upon a ton of text messages from... Katherine Pierce. _

_There were so many messages, constructing a plot much too rich for Caroline to grasp all at once. However, things became clearer. A lot of things, actually._

_Like Kol only having joined all the craziness because Katerina Petrova had tipped him off about the entire Silas debacle._

_Like the suggestion of cutting off Jeremy's arms being hers. _

_Like the warning of Klaus having turned an entire bar so Jeremy could stake them, coming from her. _

_All of Kol's involvement in this mess had been because of Katherine._

_And Caroline found something else... A navigational map towards a motel room. Just outside of Mystic Falls. _

_Which was the point where Caroline Forbes chose to make the biggest mistake of her life... she chose to go to that motel._

"So what... " a bored Rebekah taunted from the couch. "Your sob story is that you stumbled upon our brother's phone and accidentally got yourself framed, and that Katherine just got my brother involved out of pure fun?"

"Miss Forbes, your tale so far is fairly hard to believe given the lack of proof." Elijah said calmly, his worried gaze on Katherine.

"She can´t proof it, brother." Klaus said nonchalantly. "Kol's phone burned along with himself when Jeremy staked him. All of this is just a bunch of rubbish..." he nearly spat the last words at Caroline._ How dare she, beautiful as she may be, deny him his well-earned truth, his closure?_

Caroline gazed at the three unimpressed Originals with an air of indifference, before focusing back on Katherine.

"Sadly, Katherine here disposed of the phone. But who says I am lacking proof?" she chimed with a tightening grip on Katherine.

From the corner of her eye, she noted Elijah's grip on his glass tightening as well. Klaus was growing impatient. Rebekah was growing intrigued.

"Actually, it took me years to figure that one out. Why on Earth would she bring Kol into all of this? From the diaries and notes I found in his motel, I am pretty damn sure he never wanted Silas and that damn cure to be found, so I spent ages wondering as to why. You know, her stupid motive is the only reason I did not offer up her phone in exchange for Tyler's freedom immediately. I figured, serving it up as a solid case would get me quicker where I wanted to get, but as is turns out, all of that did just waste a gigantic amount of time. 86 years of my time to be exact. But, well, I finally did figure out her motive." she mused, a dangerous look pointed at her captive.

"And pray, what would said motive be, love?" Klaus chimed, playing along in her game simply because he assumed she´d lose it in the end.

"She needed a distraction." That one got everyone's attention, and it brought fear to Katherine's eyes.

"Well, there was Team Klaus, looking for the cure, presumably to turn Elena human and create more Doppelgangers... but then it turned out all you wanted was to destroy it. Then there was Team Elena... looking to turn Elena back to human... and then there was Team Rebekah, looking for the typical human dream with the white picket-fence and an army of toddlers, how endearing. How soon would it have been before one of you figured out that there was another team?" she asked, shooting a pointed look at Rebekah. Caroline used to be best friends with Stefan Salvatore, and there was a point when he had kept her glued in, for instance, into drug-induced office searching events with Original blood sluts. And from the look on said blood slut's face, Caroline could see an ounce of recognition in Rebekah's face.

"So what was my brother supposed to do in all of this?" Rebekah consequently felt compelled to ask.

"Do what he does best, cause havoc. He only meant to stop or at least stall all of you. Katherine here had sold him quite the sob story. She told him, that Klaus might think of turning her instead of Elena if he ever were to get his hands on that cure, and hence got Kol all concerned about Silas. By the way, Kol had it right all along, and he´s still very upset that so far none of you ever said that out loud" Caroline smirked, ignoring the puzzled look her last statement had earned her from all three Originals.

"What do you mean... IS upset, our brother is dead." Rebekah asked.

"Sorry," Caroline smiled. "I only tell one tale at a time... "

"Your tale does not make any sense though, sweetheart... Kol tried stopping us from getting that cure... Katherine here was trying to get to the cure and with Kol's attempt on Jeremy's life, that nearly did not happen to all of us. Without the cure, Katherine would have had no leverage, sweetheart. So your theory is rubbish." Klaus argued, getting more annoyed by the second.

"Nearly being the imperative word here, sweetheart. Katherine was not stupid, she knew Kol would hinder the search for the cure, for a short time, but with three teams beside her desperately trying to find it, she was quite confident that Jeremy would be safe... at least until he had served his purpose. However, Katherine did not bring Kol in ONLY to make everyone not notice her own hunt for the cure, she also brought him in to solve one vital problem in the hunt for the cure."

"Which problem would that be, love?" Klaus asked.

Caroline exhaled, her eyes for once leaving Katherine's, her grip never faltering though. Her gaze met Klaus straight on.

"How many vampires do you all reckon Jeremy would have had to kill if he hadn´t conveniently killed off Kol and his entire bloodline?" The question was as calming as it was startling. And Klaus' poker face vanished in the face of her theory sounding eerily plausible. The implications of her proven innocence crawling towards his mind.

_One week earlier_

_The last thing Elena Gilbert had expected was to bump into Caroline Forbes as she entered the local college's ladies' room. For a second she wasn't sure if she was encountering a ghost or if this was the real, living, vampire. _

_"Hallo, Elena" Caroline said in a kind voice, as she brushed her blond curls in front of the mirror. _

_"Caroline..." Elena sounded lost. What could she possibly say after all this time... after all that has happened. After all she´s done._

_"It´s been a long long time. I heard your humanity is back on." Caroline commented casually. "I heard a lot has happened since I ... left." _

_To Elena, it must have felt similar to being a fish leaving water, she had trouble focusing and mostly, breathing. _

_"The last time I saw you... you were talking to Rebekah on Prom night... " Caroline added._

_"Yeah... I know, her and me, we had a Thelma-and-Louise-thing going back then, but.. now, with my humanity back on, let me make one thing clear... her and me are not friends... especially not with what her brother ... " Elena never got to finish her nervous rant._

_"What about us? are we still friends?" Caroline asked. It was the heaviest question of them all. "All of those things you said when your humanity was off... is that how you really feel?" And for a second, Caroline did show that ounce of vulnerability. You´d think, she´d had faked it when she had sobbed in Stefan's arms before seducing him, you´d think she´d fake it now. But it was all real, the real vulnerability to whom the people that had betrayed her were still a piece of home. They were more than just names on her payback list... they were memories and feeling and past and home. Mostly, they were home._

_Elena evaded her eyes, focusing on her purse, that contained lip gloss and eyeliner instead. "Caroline, I don´t feel like going down memory lane." She knew it was a pathetic thing to say after what she had let happen to Caroline, she knew, but she couldn´t focus on that. Even 86 years later, she was still not ready to handle that. _

_"Well, what about, when you said - and I quote - "You´re a repulsive, blood-sucking control freak monster... did you really mean those things?" and a sadness crept into Caroline's voice. Even a hint of desperation, a desperation she forgot Elena and her troubles could instill in her. _

_"If you´re waiting for an apology, you´re not gonna get one. I can't let myself feel bad, course if I feel bad than I feel everything... and", she sighed "we´ve all seen how I handle that." _

_Caroline sighed as well, before going over her own make-up again. As she sprayed an ounce of a French perfume, she just discovered in a store, she turned an offered the bottle to Elena. "Here, try this.. it´s magnifique...Totally magnifique..."_

_"You don´t have to pretend to be nice to me, Caroline... I know there are things you want to say to me... I know that you´re mad..." Elena said exasperatedly, wanting to get to the point of this encounter, wanting to evade the awkwardness._

_"You´re already done with your make-up? Or why did you come in here, I mean you barely did anything with your mascara... " Caroline just said, "And seriously, try the perfume. It´s good." _

_Elena, in truth, hadn´t come in to the ladies' room for anything other than a breather. 86 years since she last saw Caroline Forbes and to her nothing had changed. After turning her humanity back on, Elena had still been unable to handle all of her emotions. So she chose to focus on one emotion. Hate. Hatred for Katherine Pierce. The two girls had had two encounters after Caroline's disappearance, the first ended with her nearly killing Katherine, only Katherine had been linked to Bonnie at the time and Stefan had stopped her. The second time, Katherine nearly had her killed, but she had managed to force-feed her the cure instead. That fight ended with girls lying on the floor unconsciously, and if Katherine hadn't woken up first and made a run for it, she´d be dead by now. Elena has been trying to kill her ever since, but Katherine, albeit no longer a vampire had first managed to evade her successfully, before managing to get herself turned back into a vampire. So ... except for the only dose of the cure getting entirely wasted, nothing had really changed. Elena was still angry, Katherine was still alive. Elena thought the situation to be frustrating and sad. Caroline was calling it pathetic. _

_So the reason Elena had escaped to the ladies' room was merely for a breather. It was nerve-wrecking to pretend to be all bubbly in her college classes and all happy in her free-time, at least in the part she spend with regular humans, when alls she wanted was to rip out Katherine's heart. It was an image that consumed her, even more than her love to Damon. So Elena was simply here for a breather._

_"I get it... you´re mad and angry... even after all this time. You´ve probably spent the past decades wondering what you´re doing and how you can keep on playing this part that you´re playing for all of those people out there... but that´s only how you feel now... once you get through this entire Hating-Katherine-phase..." Caroline explained. Stephan had managed to fill her in on that one as well. A smirk nearly crept up her features, but she managed to keep it down._

_"Wait... Do you know where Katherine is?" Elena asked alertly._

_"Why would I know where she is?" Caroline asked quietly, sensing the predictable signs of paranoia in her former friend._

_"But Caroline, if you did, you would tell me where she is, right?" Elena asked urgently. Yes, Caroline realized, to Elena all of this was still as fresh as the day Jeremy had first died. She had thought after hearing about Bonnie's final miracle - his resurrection - the anger would have quieted down, but it was still fresh... and raw. It was a wound waiting for Caroline to put some salt in._

_"Ugh" , Caroline exhaled slowly. "Elena, you´re obsessing."_

_At that, Elena grabbed Caroline's arm. "Caroline, listen to me. If you know, where Katherine is, you have to tell me." That was the moment in which Elena opted to finally lock gazes with her former friend, the one she had abandoned to hell, the one who still owed her a major anger break-out._

_"Fine. She was in Salem, Oregon until not so long ago, until I came along, suffocated her with a pillow, cause you know, payback really is a bitch, stuffed her in a metal-chest and that´s where I have kept her for the past couple of days, letting her slowly desiccated so by the time I need her for a special show I have planned, she´ll be ready to sing like a canary." Caroline spat out, her anger finally creeping through._

_Elena's first reaction was a horrified kind of awe. "What...?" Before Elena could finish her question, Caroline had her pinned against the bathroom door, kneeing her in the stomach before spraying the vervained perfume all over her face. After that she grabbed her, and flung her across the room against the mirrors, causing her to crash down. Quickly, she pinned her former friend's knuckles to the ground using two mirror shards, before hovering over her. "Do I still fight like a girl?"_

_"Caroline... I can explain." Elena uttered. _

_"Not necessary. I already know the story. Your humanity was still off when Klaus had asked you, right? So you simply confirmed Katherine's lies, just because you wanted to prove to your Salvatores how far off you were... and then, by the time you got your so far utterly underused humanity back, it had already been too long. Klaus would have had your head if he had found out that you lied and confirmed another lie, sentencing me to whatever you imagined Klaus had done to me... did you ever wonder what that was, by the way? Did you?" Caroline asked in a dangerous quietness, before slapping Elena hard. " So you three decided to keep quiet" _

_"Care... things were just plain crazy back then. "_

_At that, Caroline just bowed down to her and pressed a hand to her mouth. "And guess what, they´re about to get crazier. So here´s what´s going to happen. I am going to snap your neck. Then I am going to steal your jacket, your top and your jeans... you know, being stuck in an asylum for 86 years kind of leaves a lot to wish for in the fashion department. Then I am going to stuff you in a toilet booth and leave you here. Without your daylight ring. So, since it´s only ten, I recommend you prepare yourself for a few hours of down time. Oh and just to make sure you get plenty of sleep, I´ll stake you... you know, like you nearly staked me at one point? Just beneath your heart... so far enough away from it to not kill you. ... Then I am going to a very secluded place just outside of town, where I have your boyfriend tied up and vervained. Want to guess what I am going to do to him?" At that, Caroline bend down to whisper in her ear "The same he did to me once. The exact same thing." At that, Elena tried to scream only for her panic to be muffled by Caroline's grip._

_For a second, Caroline just gazed at her former friend. "You know, a part of me missed you... you know the old Elena, the one that could be trusted... I really did miss you at one point. You know, when the torture became too much, oh... yes Elena... there was torture, lots of it. How do you think I managed to become immune to vervain to the point where I managed to put it into my perfume?... anyway, when the torture became too much... I thought of some of our friends... you know, eventually, after Jeremy died for a second time, I finally managed to see him. Just like Ric, so whenever the torture really drove me out of my mind, I called them to me and asked them, how do they feel knowing that your lies brought me here. After a decade, Jeremy finally admitted it... he´s beyond ashamed of whom you´ve become." At that... Elena`s eyes widened with tears. _

_"Isn´t it refreshing, to finally feel something that is not a kill-Katherine-emotion? Good for you, because I´ll be taking Katherine to Klaus and when I am done ... he might have taken your revenge from you. ... Oh and one more thing... I slept with Stefan. I slept with him completely consensually by the way, snapped his neck, staked him and then I went to your room and took about 90% of your wardrobe as payback for prom. Like I said, 86 years away from shopping has left my wardrobe quiet empty. " she smirked, seeing the utter shock at Caroline´s admission of having slept with her ex. "You look exhausted, Elena. You need rest." And with that she just snapped her neck._

_For a second, she just looked at her old friend, and all the emotion she could muster up was ... pity. That girl was almost the same as she had been before all the Klaus-craziness had started. Only consumed by anger. Elena Gilbert had spent the past 86 years hating and hating and hating Katherine... other than that, there´s been zero character development. Caroline had never heard of anything more exhausting than being stuck like that. It was truly and utterly pathetic._

_When Elena awoke, she was only clad in her underwear, a bloodied stake lay next to her. She was locked in a cubicle in a ladies' room and all she could think about was Caroline's threat concerning Damon. And for the first time in a very long time, she felt something that was not hate, it was genuine fear._

"So, Miss Forbes, you´re accusing Katerina of intentionally setting up my brother to get killed so Jeremy's tattoo could be completed quicker." Elijah repeated, a dubious look on his face. Caroline was not sure whether the doubt was aimed at Katherine or herself.

"Well... yes. You really know how to pick them, Elijah. But thank you, I really appreciate you turning her back into a vampire... It would be impossible for me to squeeze any sort of testimony out of her if she´s a ghost. Well.. technically not impossible...but way too much of a hussle."

"You were talking of proof... how about you show it to us, as in right now." Rebekah said.

"Fine. Klaus... be a darling and go through my purse please." Caroline said, without taking her eyes off Katherine, once more.

Klaus begrudgingly followed her command, taking stacks of paper out of her purse.

"I took some of those files from the archive at Whitemore college... some of them I retrieved from the attic at the house of Prof. Shane's descendents. They´re the most important pieces of correspondence. If you go through them, you´ll find that a certain K.P. had passed on information towards Shane. Like the file of a certain orphaned werewolf willing to do about everything in order to obtain information on her deceased parents. Like information on how to become the successor to Sheila Bennett's college position and hence accessing her former office. She´s been planning that one since way before you broke the curse, Klaus... as a back-up plan in case something went wrong during the sacrifice. And when that did not get her the freedom she wanted... she passed on more information. Mostly about the Bennett line. But also about you... Shane did get a little information on your hybrids from Haley...but most of it came out of Katherine's big mouth. She was also the one getting him in touch with Connor. It´s all in those files. Every letter, every secret email and what I suspect to be written down copies from old texts. I assume with Katherine thinking my fate to be more or less sealed, she no longer needed to invest time in destroying Shane's office, which would have been a risk on its own, putting unwanted attention onto her. Read the files, it´s all in there."

In disbelief, Klaus scanned through the stack, finding evidence of most of the things Caroline had said, even more than that... His stomach twisted at the revelation._ No.. no.. this can´t be right... that would mean I... _

"Do these documents also prove that you were never involved in her plot, love?" he asked, angrily.

"No... " she admitted calmly.

"Now, if all of this is true, why would Katherine implicate you out of all people." Rebekah said. Sensing the catastrophe that was to unleash, dreading it.

"I found the phone, I was planning on telling on her, so I could free Tyler. So she figured if she´d frame me first, I´d be too busy running to explain my side of the story. She was right about that, wasn´t she? It all happened pretty fast, the way I remember it. I came home from prom to find my room ransacked. Kol's phone was gone. Then you walked in and without so much as a word yanked my heart out. It´s a shame really, that dress you gave me and ruined was beyond lovely."

With that, she gave Klaus a hard look, and for a second, she thought she could determine an ounce of guilt.

_86 years ago. _

_He had come home from watching Caroline and Tyler to find a letter stuck between his bourbon canters._

**Klaus,**

**I hear Elijah has refused you the cure and in return you´ve refused my freedom. Shame on you both. But while you boys sort out your problems I have two last things to offer you. Firstly, I´ve caught wind that there´s a witch in New Orleans named Jane-Anne Devereaux, plotting a move against you. Hunt her down. What she has to say will rattle you too deeply into your core that chasing little old me will be the least of your concerns. And if the way to New Orleans is too much of a bother for you, try hunting down Caroline Forbes. She´s been part of the plot to kill Kol and the DVD enclosed shows her ransacking through Kol's motel room, trying to get rid of any evidence that might implicated her part in his death. Hunt her down, too. **

**It´s been fun five centuries, Klaus, but I´ve worn down too many good heels running from you. Love, and hate.**

**Katerina.**

_The next thing he knew was himself ransacking the room. Before he had sped off to the Forbes' home. Where he did not immediately bump into a Forbes... but into a Gilbert. Elena Gilbert. _

"Miss Forbes, there´s still no proof as to your lack of involvement in this." Elijah said, avoiding any eye contact with Katherine.

"It hurts, doesn´t it, Elijah. Knowing that you spent almost 600 years loving this bitch and she goes and gets your brother killed. You´re grasping for straws. But as for evidence proving me innocent, yes, I can´t really give you any. I mean, there was a tape from the motel, but I suspect Katherine here got rid of that along with Kol's phone, so no... I do not have evidence. "

_86 years ago_

_It was early morning when Caroline woke up with pain in her chest. The first things she remembered were Prom, the dress Klaus had given her, Tyler showing up and .. then Klaus tearing out her heart. In her still ransacked room. As she got up from her bed, she caught her reflection in the mirror: the beautiful silver dress all bloodied. There was a sober smell of bacon in the air. Numbly she made her way downstairs, to find Bonnie there, cooking. _

_As her friend noticed her presence, she rushed to hug Caroline. "Care...thank god you´re ok." _

_"Bonnie... what happened?" Caroline asked confusedly, the bacon's aroma somehow sickening her._

_"Klaus was here, he killed you. He... " Bonnie cried._

_"Hold up.. he killed me.. I mean, I remember him yanking out my heart..oh my God ... how come I am still alive?" After silence from Bonnie, Caroline repeated her question. "Bonnie... what did you do?"_

_"The same spell I did for Jeremy when your Mom accidentally shot him... I brought you back. ... I struck a deal with Katherine, and part of that linked me to her... and I saw parts of her memories and I saw what she told Klaus, and I figured he´d do something. But I was too late to warn you... so I brought you back." At that... Caroline started to hyperventilate... the thought of her heart having left her body mere hours ago, freaking her out. "Listen, Care, you need to get changed... and leave. I found your father's old Journal in your mom's office, you need to take this and leave. I read Katherine's mind, I know you found something valuable in Kol's journals, and I know that you burned them because you planned on using this information. I need you to take your father's journal, go to Tibet and learn how to not be compelled. You need to take this information and keep it inside your head. Because once Klaus learns that you´re still alive, he´ll learn about that missing piece of information soon enough as well... and then he´ll come after you with all he´s got. I can make you untraceable by any witch, and I can help you get on a plane...but you need to leave. Now."_

_It was all too much to process for Caroline. Last night all had been fine and now.. she had to leave. Only she couldn´t just leave like that. _

_"What about my mom, Bonnie... I can´t just leave her in danger like that..."_

_At that, Bonnie stalled, and her expression turned even sadder... "Caroline... I ... I could only bring back one of you..." _

_"What?.." with that Caroline turned, to find a body covered by a blanket on the couch. Hesitantly she started walking closer, towards it, mumbling "no", sobbing it out.. until she had pulled away the blanket... to find her mother, with a hole in her chest, lying there... a scared expression forever stuck on her face._

_After that she had broken down crying, and Bonnie had left her in peace for about thirty minutes, before ushering her to change. Ushering her into her car, telling her to get on a certain plane and only take her father's journal with her. A morning later she awoke in Tibet, to busy grieving for her mother to realize she had finally left Mystic Falls. _

"I have that tape from the hotel... I have seen it many times, it clearly proves Katherine's accusation."

At Klaus' words, Caroline's eyes shot up. "You still have that tape?"

In a flash he had fetched the tape from his room, and thrust it into an old video player. He was modern but also ancient, so his room contained modern entertainment devices as well as old video recorders and record players. When the screen lit up, it clearly showed Caroline ransacking through a room that presumably was Kol's.

"See love, that is you... trying to hide your guilt." Klaus chided. Suppressing an ounce of relieve, for he did not know how he´d react if he´d find out all of those years, he had thought her guilty when she´d been innocent.

For a second Caroline stared at the screen in bewilderment, confusion circling around her eyes...before a dawning expression came about. "Did you ever rewind any further than that scene?"

Her tone was calm, but there was an eerie quality to it.

"What do you mean?"

" I said did you ever rewind the tape further back, like a day earlier?"

Before Klaus could respond, Elijah had grabbed the remote and pressed the rewind button. When the tape started again, Kol`s room was still on display, with him walking around the room... and then he seemed to have heard something... a knock maybe... and he went to open the door, letting none other than Katherine Pierce in.

After that... the whole room was silent. You could hear a pin drop. Rebekah just sat quietly on the couch, knowing that the ramifications of Caroline's testimony were not nearly as painful to her as they were to both of her brothers. Elijah held on tightly to his glass, causing it to shatter in his hands.

Klaus... he took longer to react.

"You really are a joke, you know? Nothing but a 1,000 year old joke. You´ve had that tape all that time and you simply never bothered to press rewind long enough for the truth to appear. Just hilarious." Caroline stated drily.

"You really are innocent." Rebekah finally uttered.

"Have been for the past 86 years, but your brothers chose to believe that one here." she hummed darkly, gazing at Katherine, who finally managed to speak.

"You were supposed to just die. I did not mean for you to get tortured, I thought he´d just kill you and that´ll be it..." At that Caroline just yanked her up and threw her across the room, before pulling her up by her throat again in a flash.

"Too bad that´s not how it happened." And for the first time anger was smeared across her face.

She was close to ripping out her throat for real this time, when a quiet, British accented voice murmured: "But she told me... she told me you had been part of this?" Klaus mumbled, trying to comprehend the onslaught of new information in his mind.

"Who told you what?" Caroline snarled, glaring at Katherine.

"Elena... she said... that Katherine was telling the truth. I asked her."

"You mean the Elena that at the time was without any form of humanity, playing friends with your bloodslut sister and stealing prom dresses left and right?" And with that, she dropped Katherine and walked over towards Klaus' extensive whisky collection, pouring herself a glass.

"But she regained her humanity back shortly afterwards... why on Earth would they not have told us then?" Rebekah asked in disbelieve, feeling a sense of disappointment in Stefan and partially in Elena as well.

"Well.. it might have been shortly after Klaus placing me in that hellhole, but damage had already been done, hadn´t it? They probably thought that if they were to tell Klaus that Elena, no matter what state of humanity she was in at the time, had lied to Klaus, leading him to lash out at me the way we all know he did... he would not be so forgiving." she said indifferently.

"I am going to kill them." Klaus hissed.

"Don´t bother... I already exacted my revenge... it´s been taken care of."

_One week earlier_

_He was tied to a crappy bed in a warehouse, his arms and legs held down by ropes soaked in concentrated vervain. A stake lodged in each shoulder for good measure. She´d been gone for hours, but Damon knew his tormentor would return. When he had first woken up in that warehouse, he had been smug, he even had quipped a line or two about her. Him refering to her as Blondie has finally caused him to snap. After that, things had gone pretty fast. His clothes had disappeared, her teethe lodged into his skin over and over again. He was covered in bite marks, the vervain reducing his healing abilities to the point of them almost having vanished. The first time, he tried to speak, she slapped him. But not like a girl, more like a monster. The time he finally managed to utter an apology, she just broke his jaw. And then she had at him... forced herself on him over and over again. At one point she whispered to him: "You know Damon, you raped me 14 times, fed off me like 25 times... This is me returning the favor." It was degrading, the enjoyment of an act you don´t enjoy and don´t want to engage it, the humiliating control she had over his body. The pain of her vicious bites. Blondie was gone, this was someone new...someone Damon had no longer any control over. And he had spent the time she´d been out pondering over that._

_At one point, she told him that he was better under force than he had ever been when she was still human. He responded by finally, in all agony, asking her if she was going to kill him. She only hummed. "Mmm... but not know... you still got some use". _

_Hours after leaving him to contemplate that, she returned, wearing clothes he was all too familiar with. _

_"Hey stud. I had a run-in with your girlfriend. You´ll be pleased to hear that I did not stake her...at least not mortally... though it´ll be a few hours before either her or your brother will come for you. But that´s fine...that still gives us a little more time, doesn´t it?" she just smiled at him airily. Pulling out a stake from her pocket, a bloodied stake, and placing it on the backside table. Her final time she raped him was different from all the others. Less wild and enraged, more slow and deliberate, almost intimate to a degree where he felt like a cheater. Even those final bites she inflicted upon him, they were no longer beastly, but seductive and deep. They made him groan out, tears of more joy than grief in his eyes. And afterwards, she cuddled against his chest, tracing random patterns on it with her stake. _

_"You realize, you´re my sire, right? You should have stood up for me, you know." she said sadly. The sadness was as sincere as his guilt was._

_"Caroline... " he whispered hoarsely. "I am so sorry... we didn´t think Klaus would truly hurt you. We .. just." But Caroline just placed a finger on his still bruised lip. _

_"Ssh... " she spoke, softly kissing up his chest. "You make me crazy, you know that? " she whispered as her lips moved towards his neck, while her stake slowly made its way to his heart. He exhaled in anticipation, fearing her for the first time since he´s known her. "It´s okay, I forgive you."_

_"Caroline, I swear I didn´t mean..." _

_But her kisses only grew softer, and her shushing became only more tender, somehow quieting him. For a second he got lost in the ecstasy of her, as her free hand intertwined with one of his shackled ones. He caught himself humming in pleading delight, hoping for her to not kill him. "It´s okay... Unfortunately... I am so over you now..." And with that she dug her teeth into his neck like she had never done before. And only when he was nearly drained, she moved her stake. _

_When Damon Salvatore woke up hours later, naked and humiliated, he found a note. "__**The only reason I spared your life this time is because you once saved me from a werewolf bite... don´t forget that. By the way, you still suck. Caroline. **__" After that his life was never the same as it had been. _

At the eerie smile gracing her features, even Rebekah was taking aback. "What did you do to them?" she asked tentatively, trying to find an ounce of the old, familiar Caroline inside that girl.

"I seduced and temporarily killed Stefan, then I staked Elena just below her heart after which I went to steal most of her wardrobe and then I raped, bit and staked Damon. Don´t worry, they´re all still alive, just not as merry." she quipped without any sign of remorse. "By now, Damon should be sulking and trying to pretend like he´s okay, the threesome should be awkward as hell and Elena should finally have some other emotion to focus on that hatred for Katherine. I mean, seriously, that girl spent the past 86 years solely focused on one emotion... if that isn´t pathetic, what is."

The vampires surrounding her couldn´t help but stare at her, bewildered, guilt-ridden, shocked.

"Miss Forbes, it appears we have made a grave error." Elijah started but Caroline calmly but authoriatively cut him off.

"Save it, Elijah... we all know how this one is going to play out. You´re going to be indignant about Katherine´s actions, for, I´d say a century or two... you´ll avoid her like a plague for a while and then you´ll move on to go looking back to find that innocent peasant girl you think Katerina Petrova to be, and then, like nothing has happened, you´ll go back to advocating for her absolution. And all of this under the guise of being the chivalrous one amongst the three of you... you know what I think. There is no such thing as a chivalrous Original. Hell.. there´s not even such a thing as an Original of purpose. You three are nothing but purposeless immortals trying to pass the time. ... You hide behind your so called principles, and don´t get me started on how often Katherine has managed to bend those until they break. Rebekah is hiding behind her quest for... oh,yeah, right...love and... don´t even get me started on the sob story your other brother is hiding behind."

Elijah was seemingly out of words, for he couldn´t deny the blonde vampire's words. Neither could Rebekah.

"Speaking of Katherine.." Caroline´d head shot up, her face displaying her vampire features. "Katherine, I don´t think you have anything to fear of Klaus and Elijah at the moment, because they´re just too stunned by your depravity... but you do have to fear me, so listen closely. You´re going on the run, but not from me. Back to Elena and the Salvatores. Should I ever stumble upon you anywhere else but within a twenty miles radius of these three, I´ll rip your head off and feed it to an alligator. They deserve you. No go... run along and just be your annoying self, or do you want me to ship you in the crate again?" she snarled, causing Katherine to run with an regretful glance at Elijah, who avoided returning it by staring into the pit of his drink.

For a while none of them said anything, Klaus had seemingly sunken into the a mental abyss, staring into the fire as he leaned against the mantelpiece.

His siblings just stared at his back, worrying about his mental health. They knew that despite all the outside austerity, the idea of Caroline's betrayal had eaten away at him for all those years. They could only guess at what he´s feeling now.

It was Caroline that finally approached him. She simply walked up to him, placed her glass next to his' on the mantelpiece. "You are awfully quiet." she chirped. His face, as he finally turned to face her, took them all aback. The devastation hiding behind his eyes drew out the air from the room.

"Caroline" he whispered. "Why didn´t you speak up sooner." he roared, grasping her arms.

"I did" she yelled back." But after a month in that hellhole I realized that this was not what you wanted to hear, the truth wasn´t getting me anywhere. So I stopped talking altogether."

"If I had known... I ..." he tried to explain, trying to find something he could hold onto her with. Anything. His mind came up empty.

"You could have known. All it would have taken was a pressing down on a button on your remote control, yet you chose to remain willfully ignorant." she retorted, her face turning into a wall of ice.

"I swear, I´ll make this up to you... I.."

"Stop it.. .we both know your promises are empty, just like your emotions. Invalid currencies." she shrugged.

The indifference bore to his core quicker than anything else he had heard the entire night. "I will find a way to make this up to you. Please... anything you want... it´s yours, just tell me." he whispered, begged her.

And for a moment, she was vulnerable. For a brief moment, she turned back into the girl to whom he had once promised a thousand more birthday, the girl that had had tears in her beautiful eyes when she proclaimed that she did not want to die.

"Actually... " and she almost seemed like a shy little girl when she said that..." There is one thing. Can you please give me back my mom. Please?" And she looked up at him with an expression of ill-fated hope.

But not even an Original can bring back a human corpse that has been gone for over 86 years.

"I am sorry love" he said, trying to man up enough courage to face her. His instincts telling her that he owed it to her.

And the moment had passed. In a flash she was at the door, her mask of eerie smiles and indifference back on her innocent face. "I thought as much... well now that this is all settled... I´ll be gone. See you in about 25 years, then I`ll tell you what Kol had on Silas in his diary."

She was about to head out of the door, when Klaus yelled after her. "So what was all of this for? Why this display if you´re not going to give any of us a chance to redeem ourselves... was this all to torture us? Payback?"

For a second she just stopped in her tracks, exhaling, sighing, before turning back towards him. "First of all, this conversation was part of your terms of the agreement. Secondly, you´re to consider this a warning. Because, just so you know, should I ever... ever... ever stumble upon another piece of white oak, you´ll be losing another sibling. And believe me, I´ll be looking for it."

She had spent lot of years picturing his death, but since that ultimately would have led to her demise as well, she only saw it fit to take from him family, like he had taken family from her. She didn´t particularly care which one of the two. Killing Elijah had the extra bonus of hurting Katherine, killing Rebekah, on the other hand, felt more rewarding. She wouldn´t pull another Elena, she wouldn´t dedicate her life to that search, like she had, but she would search. Just in case there was another piece of white oak floating around somewhere out there.

After that, she just left.

"Talk to you in 25 years".

She left them all... stunned. Him broken as well.

_One week earlier_

_The blonde girl stood in front of the grave, shaking visibly. The peonies in her hands barely surviving her anxiety. She had waited 86 years to visit this grave. 86 years of wondering if anyone had ever gotten around to organize a funeral. _

_"Hey, Mami" she whispered, as she slowly placed the flowers onto the tomb stone. There were so many things she wanted to say. She wanted to tell her dead mother how much she´d missed her, she wanted to tell her that it´s okay, that she never got to see her, she understood completely. She even wanted to tell her how sorry she was for becoming a vampire and dragging her into all of this mess. But all that came out was a stutter. And then a sob. And then another. _

_Finally, Caroline broke down sobbing and crying on her mother's grave. Her strength and her plans gone, as she was finally left with an opportunity to grief and do nothing but that. She had spent 86 years for moment in which she would be able to peacefully mourn her mother' s death. So she kneeled there, sobbing until every ounce of sarcasm and mischief in her broken spirit had faded, until she was too weak to get up again. At least for the time being, she permitted herself to be that weak. To grief. _

_"I missed you, mama"._

**So... that was the hugest update I ever did, and I ... am not entirely happy with it. I never am.. but this time I feel like I did not do it well enough, but I doubt I can do it any better and I am sure most of you are running out of patience with me... so this is the update... I briefly considered chopping it in two, but felt it better to have the backstory (most of it at least) all out in one go. I know this is like a lot of stuff to take it, but I hope you at least like some it. The next arch will feature Caroline during her 25 year hiatus, but don´t worry... Klaus will pop up every now and then. Please don´t hate me too much, should you find this update is a let down.**


	5. Responses&SneakPeeks

Hey guys,

I am working on the latest update...but since it´s term paper season... yeah.. you get the picture. So ... I thought I´d give you guys at least some spoilers as well as some responses to those of you whom I sadly cannot send a pm to.

I am going to do the answer part first, so those of you who do not wish to read any spoilers, you´ll still get to look if maybe I did respond to something one of you said :-)

**Responses:**

1. Dear Arabella, please tell me you managed to turn in that paper in time, I´d hate to feel guilty and responsible for you not turning in your work in time? Thank you for your inspirational review, it´s reviews like yours that help me get some more ideas. (So... keep them coming). I wanted to send you a pm...but since that wasn´t possible..this is for you: I understand your anger towards most of the characters at the moment, but please forgive me for not killing anyone at this point (maybe later). As for the white oak... you´ll find that in this story, I am going to change directions a lot... so I am not going to say if or when the white oak will appear, but it´ll feature in a few discussions and Caroline will be looking for it, just not obsessively, since her recent experiences have taught her quite a lot on how destructive that can be. But don´t worry, she´s going to still kick some ass and rock and do great things. Have faith. And should she ever find some white oak, the question of whom she´ll use it on, will be quite prominent. As for Caroline having way more up her sleeve: TOTALLY! There´s a chapter that I am currently considering to call "Sex on Fire" that you should hold your breath for. (Though, the title may change... you´ll know it when you´ll read it, it won´t be the next update though). Thank you also for your positive take on that selfish Elena quote, I was slightly nervous that my reuse of all those quotes from the show would not work out. As for Caroline being a super-villain. Don´t hold your breath. She´ll be more trying to figure out what she wants and by the end of her 25year journey, Klaus will do something that REALLY pisses her off as well as forces her to interact with him. So instead of assigning her a clear "good character" or "villain" card, I am opting for making her the wild card. Meaning that as of now... not even I know whose side she´ll be on when. Just a tad bit of a warning: I am a cannon-ish writer. Meaning that I put my swing on every road bump Julie Plec puts in my way... however, in this story, Caroline will have a life outside of Plecverse... so eventually you´ll meet people she´s met. I won´t be putting all of those 25 years in straight chapters, some things will be revealed via flashbacks, later. And with all of that potential, I am just not ready to label her a villain or a hero. I consider her a character-in-development. As for your wish of Klaus seeing her happy and feel bad about his actions: Klaus will feel horrible for a long time. And he´ll see plenty of different sides of Caroline, new sides, old sides and happy will be one of them. There are no words to describe how bad Klaus feels. (Which is partially making me nervous since I am ... sort of forced to put it into words...oh crap... what did I do?). Oh... and about the ghosts... they´ll remain important... and sadly, Caroline won´t be seeing some important people for quite a while... even sadder: Bonnie is one of those people. But we´ll get plenty of Kol to tie us over. The ghost thing will definitely not go away any time soon... as for the asylum vamps... omg you´ll all hate me. I may or may not have had a G.R.R. Martin moment with them. ... don´t worry... they won´t just not recur again, I am not that evil. I put them to a different use then you all thought I would. So no, as compelling as the image is: Caroline won´t lead an army of crazy-ass vampires through the streets of New Orleans (... and yes, it´s a tempting image... hm... maybe... no. I got to stay strong, No army march on NOLA!... ) but they won´t just disappear, I swear. They´ll still be important. (not just for flashbacks). I really appreciate every single thought you had and gave me, and thank you for your patience. I am not quite sure if my work is truly epic, but thanks for the vote of confidence :-) (and please tell me in your next review whether you got that paper in on time).

To the guest who called this his favorite so far: Gee... knowing what lies ahead, I am curious for how long that´ll last :-)

to the guest asking for a happy Caroline: have faith, it´ll happen.

To Justine: You want to read some paying? Fine... Paying I shall give you (just not in the next update, bear with me, please).

To guest who doesn´t want for Caroline to change... have faith in my attempt at character developement, please? *puppy eyes*

_Everyone...feel free to write a review to this note... I appreciate thoughts...they give me evil ideas :-)_

**Spoilers **

**Spoilers**

**Spoilers**

Okay, if you read this now... you wanted it. You´ve all been warned.

1. The next update will be called: "if you love me just stay close"

2. It´ll be a mash-up between a letter written by Caroline and her actual experience mixed with occasional thoughts from... Klaus.

3. It´ll contain Kol. let´s be generous, it´ll contain two Kols. And maybe Liz?

4. Caroline will work up a lot of anger and grieve... basically she´ll do some of that soul-searching that she put on hold in favor of survival for 86 years.. . and NO, she won´t be talking to a shrink.

5. There´ll be a cat.

6. The chapter could be considered a PSA for "Things you should not do when you have the 6th sense..." , her ghost vision will be a disadvantage in this chapter.

7. Thomas... will be give a place in Caroline's life. (I know, when you all were so hyped up about that asylum vamps, he was probably not the first that came to mind... but...)

So...everyone is free to comment, if you have pm enabled, I´ll even respond. :-) Thanks for the support so far.. I am ... honestly thrilled.


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